Through Prof. Craft's works, you will read the actual words of the Countess as well as the people who knew her personally--her accomplices, certainly, but also her staff and attendants, the clergy, fellow nobles, townspeople, and even surviving victims.

* Erzsébet's sisters were not killed in a peasant uprising as children (find out about their actual husbands and children).

* Erzsébet did not grow up with insane or perverted family members.

* Erzsébet did not have a strained relationship with her supposedly-hated mother-in-law (find out when Orsolya Kanizsai Nádasdy really died).

* Erzsébet was likely brutalized as a child at Sárvár.

* Erzsébet gave generously to the Lutheran church, patronized scholars and the arts, and even protected the incomes of the clergy.

* Erzsébet was still attending Court and even the King'scoronation just months before her arrest.

* Two days before her arrest, even György Thurzó and his wife were still not convinced of her guilt.

* Thurzó likely never caught her red-handed (learn about the clever legal doctrine he used to convict her).

* Erzsébet never bathed in the blood of her victims (learn how the legend began).

* Erzsébet clearly did not kill over 600 people.

* Learn why King Mátyás was so eager to have her convicted.

* Read the depositions of 306 witnesses who testified as to what really happened.

* Read the Countess' actual Last Will & Testament, written in1610, as well as the final addendum to her Will, written in 1614 (written in an effort to stop her son-in-law from confiscating property from her daughter!).

* Learn about Erzsébet's relationship with her husband and children from actual letters.

* Find out who the real Thorko was (it was not Ficzkó!).

* Read about the plot to confiscate her property through actual letters from her sons-in-law, King, Parliament, Palatine, and children.

* Learn how the Countess repeatedly petitioned to testify on her own behalf and was denied each time.

* Learn what really happened on the night of her arrest.

* Read the complete trial transcripts and depositions taken from her four servant accomplices, extracted under torture just before their executions.

* Find out whether she was actually walled up in her tower or not.

* Read about how she really died.

For scholars of this subject material, this research will "bust" centuries of myths and legends and provide exciting, new information.

EXPLORE THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LEGENDS...

SECRETS ARE REVEALED...

A SAMPLING OF WHAT YOU WILL FIND:

The following are excerpts of private letters, as well as testimony taken under oath and recorded by the King's royal notaries, András of Keresztúr and Mózes Cziráky, in legal proceedings against the Countess:

...What you tell us...we have not heard without serious displeasure, paralyzing fear, and internal shuddering; namely, that she has put behind any reverence for God and man, driven by animal crudity and diabolical influence, killing more than 300 innocent virgins and women of both noble and lower levels who served her as maids...in a most monstrous and cruel manner, their bodies mutilated, burned with hot irons, their flesh ripped out, roasted on the fire and this roasted flesh then allowed to be served....

The 2nd witness was the honorable Tamás Jaworka, Judge of the City of Kosztolány, about 40 years old, sworn and interrogated; he spoke of the cruelty of the woman Erzsébet Báthory... and said, in addition, that he had heard from some young servants of the said Lady Erzsébet Báthory how extremely cruel this woman was with her maids; namely, that she burned some of them on the abdomen with a red-hot iron; others she seated in a large, earthen tank and poured boiling water over them and scalded the skin, in this way causing them to suffer; the same witness had also frequently seen the appearances of the virgins in her retinue disfigured and covered with blue spots from numerous blows.

-Report of András of Keresztúr to the King, July 28, 1611.

...When my men entered Csejthe Manor, they found a girl dead in the house; another followed in death as a result of many wounds and agonies. In addition to this, there was also a wounded and tortured woman there; the other victims were kept hidden away where this damned woman prepared these future martyrs....

-Letter of György Thurzó to his wife, December 30, 1610

...Regarding the children, I can report that Anna and Orsika are healthy. Regarding Kata, however, there is a problem in her mouth: namely, rot has spread there, such that even the jawbone is infected. The Barber poked about the middle of the tooth with an iron—he says it was a stroke of luck that not a single tooth fell out. I do not know how the Lord will bring the matter to an end but right now, it is, in any case, very bad for her. About myself, I can write that things are now going much better than in the past few days….

-Letter of Erzsébet Báthory to her husband, Ferenc Nádasdy, May 24, 1596

...The death of Mrs. Nádasdy may already be known to you and how she unexpectedly resigned from this life. In the evening, said she to her bodyguard: “Look, how cold my hands are!” The bodyguard told her: “It’s nothing, Mistress. Just go and lie down.” She then went to sleep. She took the pillow that was under her head and put it under her feet. As such, she lied down and, in the same night, she died. In the morning, she was found dead. They say, however, she prayed imploringly and praised God with beautiful singing. Regarding her funeral, we still have no information....

- Letter of Stanislas Thurzó to György Thurzó, August 25, 1614

Portrait of Her Ladyship, Countess Erzsébet Báthory

The Báthory family seal? Or, an artisitc rendereing?

Infamous Lady:The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory

New Research & Information

Is this really the Last Will & Testament of Countess Bathory or is it a forgery? Discover the surprising facts by reading her Private Letters.